There are several key parts of a website that regular visitors don’t see when browsing a site. These hidden elements allow the website to function and provide the user experience that visitors see on the front-end.
The Back End
The back end of a website contains the server-side code and database that powers the site. This includes:
- Server-side code – This code is written in languages like PHP, Ruby, Python, etc. It handles the logical functions of the site like connecting to the database, processing data, executing business logic, etc.
- Database – Stores all the content for the site like blog posts, products, user accounts, etc. Popular database systems are MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL.
- Server environment – The back end code runs on a server like Apache, Nginx, IIS. This is the environment that processes request and serves pages to visitors.
When you load a page on a site, a request is sent to the server, the back end code queriest he database for content, populates templates/views, and then sends the HTML page to your browser. The visitor doesn’t see any of this back end work.
Admin Interface
The admin interface or control panel is used by site owners and admins to manage the site. It allows them to:
- Create, edit, publish and unpublish content like blog posts and articles.
- Moderate user generated content like comments.
- View site analytics and traffic.
- Configure site settings.
Popular content management systems like WordPress and Drupal include a built-in admin interface. Custom web applications also have admin interfaces built just for that app. The admin interface is kept separate from the main site visitors see.
Web Server Files
There are a number of files and folders on a web server that are not accessible to visitors but are critical for the site to run:
- /wp-admin/ – The WordPress admin folder
- /wp-includes/ – WordPress core software
- wp-config.php – WordPress core configuration
- .htaccess – Apache web server configuration
- error_log – Web server error log files
Trying to access these files directly through a web browser will result in a “forbidden” error since they are not public web pages. Only the published HTML pages are meant to be viewed by site visitors.
CDN & Caching
CDNs (content delivery networks) and caching help optimize a site by storing static assets like images, CSS, and JS files on servers across the globe. By serving these files from data centers closer to visitors, sites see significant speed improvements.
CDNs and caches add more back end infrastructure that is hidden from regular visitors, but critical for site performance. Some examples are Cloudflare, Akamai, Amazon CloudFront.
Backend as a Service (BaaS)
BaaS refers to third-party services that provide back end functionality through APIs. For example:
- Authentication – Auth0, Okta
- Push notifications – Firebase Cloud Messaging
- Email newsletters – Mailchimp
- SMS/text messaging – Twilio
Developers can integrate these BaaS platforms into their front end apps/sites to add important features without having to develop and maintain complex back end systems.
Hosting Infrastructure
The hosting infrastructure keeps a website online 24/7. This includes:
- Web servers
- Application servers
- DNS servers
- Database servers
- Load balancers
- Firewalls
- Data centers
All this equipment enables websites to handle traffic spikes, security threats, and hardware failures. It takes an enormous amount of infrastructure to keep heavily trafficked sites online.
Analytics & Tracking
Analytics platforms provide site owners with insights into visitor behavior. Examples include:
- Google Analytics
- Adobe Analytics
- Matomo
The tracking code installed on each page allows activity data to be sent to these platforms. This provides details on sessions, pageviews, conversions, etc. Valuable business intelligence, but completely invisible to site visitors.
Advertising Networks
Websites that display ads make use of ad networks to serve and target those ads. Examples include:
- Google Ads
- BuySellAds
- Amazon Associates
- Media.net
The ad network code embeds targeted ads based on each visitor. Ad performance is also tracked for optimization. All these ad platforms operate behind the scenes.
Site Monitoring
Site monitoring tools check on the availability and performance of a website. Popular options include:
- UptimeRobot
- Pingdom
- New Relic
They perform automated tests and send alerts when a site is slow or down. Monitoring ensures that problems get addressed quickly before impacting visitors.
Development and Staging Environments
Before changes go live on a production website, they are tested on internal development and staging sites. These are identical versions of the live site used by developers and testers to evaluate updates and catch bugs. Changes are only deployed to the live site once fully tested.
Search Engine Index
Search engines like Google maintain a massive index of web pages that have been crawled and processed to enable lightening fast searches. Maintaining this ever-changing index requires an enormous infrastructure completely hidden from regular users.
When errors occur with a site’s pages being indexed, it can significantly impact search traffic and rankings. So while visitors don’t see this index directly, it’s a critical behind-the-scenes element.
Conclusion
While most website visitors only ever see the public-facing side of a website, there are many behind-the-scenes elements that enable the user experience they see. The back end code, server infrastructure, databases, analytics systems, and more operate silently to deliver functional, high-performance sites to users.
So the parts of a website hidden from regular visitors are just as important as the front end they interact with. All these back end systems work continuously to provide seamless browsing and optimal uptime.